Best Friend
by Lord Rebecca-sama
Summary: Tony really just wanted a friend. Turns out that's harder to find than anyone originally thought. Complete. Oneshot. Based on a picture by ironfries on tumblr.
1. You're my best friend, Tony

**Tony is eight years old. Based off of a picture on tumblr by ironfries.  
**

* * *

Despite his (and his nannies') best efforts, Tony didn't have many friends. That was a fact. He just didn't do well with real people. Tony spoke his mind more often than not and that got him into trouble with the other kids at school and the teachers. It didn't help that he was just plain smarter than them.

Jarvis could almost be considered a friend, but he was first and foremost employed by Tony's dad to take care of the household, so he didn't always have time to play with Tony.

Which was…fine. Tony understood, even if he didn't like it. He didn't need a friend his own age. He had his projects, books, and the few toys his dad hadn't cared about enough to throw away.

Most of the time, he could convince himself that he was okay, that he wasn't lonely, but when he's sitting on the playground at recess, alone, reading a book and watching all the other kids play with each other, he can't help but wonder.

He had a friend once, long ago. Her name was Sophie and they met in Kindergarten. At first, they hated each other, but a bully had started to pick on her during the second week of class. Tony remembered the stories his Aunt Peggy told him about Captain America and how he hated bullies. So Tony marched right up to the bully and told him off. Even if Sophie was annoying, she didn't deserve being bullied. He got a call home and the nanny of the month banned him from the workshop for a week, but the next day at school Sophie shared her cookies with him, and they were inseparable. At least until her family moved to Chicago for her dad's job. They kept touch for a couple months, but the letters and phone calls became further and further apart until they stopped altogether.

Now, at eight years old he didn't have any people he could claim as friends. Sure there were a couple kids who sometimes hung out with him, but he knew it wasn't because they wanted to actually play with him. He learned that lesson the hard way in first grade.

Instead of trying to make new friends at school (which never ended well), Tony worked on an original robot design that he would build himself without help from his dad. It would recognize his face and say a sentence back at him.

It took him weeks of refitting parts so he could build the body. All the parts that were premade weren't right for this. For once, Tony was glad his dad was away on business because the nannies that watched him in the workshop didn't know what he making, so he could make anything he wanted instead of looking at the engines and circuit boards his dad left.

The major set-back was that he needed Jarvis to be in the room with him if he was going to use any of the power tools or welding materials, and for some unknown reason, he was busier than normal when Tony was trying to build his small robot.

The voice box he needed was also hard to get because Tony had to take it from one of the guidance systems Stark Industries makes. After a month of not working on his little buddy, Tony asked Jarvis if he could get him one to look at, playing the card that his dad wanted him to improve it but he didn't leave one for him to examine. Tony was sure that Jarvis didn't believe him, but went along with him anyway.

While Jarvis was well known at the factories, he could only get his hands on a first generation voice box. His robot wouldn't sound as human as he'd like, but that's ok.

Tony plugged in the box and reprogrammed the voice to sound as human as he could get it without remaking the entire thing. He thinks he even did a better job than the current voice box the army has for their equipment. It also could've been that he only needed it to say one phrase and not many.

One night working late in his room had him programming the facial recognition and coding for the words. He had a bruise on his arm from being pushed at school that day, and even though he was the one bleeding, the teachers punished him, while the other kid got off scot-free. Tony had to sit by the teachers for the rest of recess. No one stood up for him or even asked if he was alright. That stung more than the scrapes on his hands.

By the end of the week, his robot, which he named Buddy, was built and the circuit boards and battery were inside him. Everything was programmed and was hopefully working. This would be the first time he put everything together and turned him on.

Tony tightened the last screw in Buddy's silver, blocky body and pushed the On button on his back. He set him on the table, legs straight out in front and sitting up, arms bent at the elbow joints at his sides. The antenna lit up, changing from red to green signaling a full charge in the battery. The eyes lit up next with a bright glowing blue and scanned the small face of the child sitting in front of him.

The screwdriver was gripped tight in Tony's fist as he waited for the little robot to speak its first words. The words that Tony had programmed into it in a fit of loneliness last week.

"You're my best friend, Tony," Buddy said, his tiny mechanical voice coming from the speaker mouth. Tony let out the breath he was holding and loosened his death grip on the screwdriver. "and I will never leave you."

A tear slipped down Tony's smiling face. It worked on his first try, and he didn't even have to take him apart and mess with the coding. It really worked. Tony wanted to scream in joy and show his dad that he could make _amazing_ things, but he knew he would just get a scoff and a broken robot for his efforts. Another couple tears slipped down his cheeks; he didn't bother wiping them away.

"I won't leave you either, Buddy, you're my best friend, too," Tony whispered back, sniffling between the words. Buddy didn't respond. He spoke the words with a combination touch and face recognition, and so Tony poked his chest to make him speak again.


	2. And I will never leave you

**Post-Iron Man 2, Pre-Avengers**

* * *

"JARVIS, what's in this box? Where'd it come from?" Tony asked, walking into his workshop garage. A large cardboard box was sitting in the middle of his workshop between his cars and his tables, right where he usually took off his Iron Man suits.

DUM-E was examining the box, his camera focusing and refocusing on it as he rolled around.

" _Sir, Agent Coulson dropped it off while you were on your date with Miss. Potts_ ," JARVIS replied. " _It contains no recording devices of any kind._ "

Tony had reached the box, but still stood an arms length away from it. "That doesn't tell me what's in it."

" _He wouldn't elaborate on the contents of the box, sir. He said that SHIELD found some objects he thought you'd like while they were at Stark Family Manor in Manhattan_."

Tony scowled. Even though he hadn't stepped foot in that house in years, he still didn't like SHIELD being able to poke their noses into it.

"Send someone to check the house and remove any bugs they might've left."

" _Of course, sir._ "

Tony took a step closer and stared at the box for a minute before sighing. "DUM-E, go get the knife from the table." DUM-E rolled away and came back with a box knife he kept nearby. He sliced through the tape on the box and dropped the knife onto the ground.

He hesitated. Did he really want to see what was so important that Agent had to leave a mysterious box in his private workshop while he was out? Why couldn't he bring it by during the day?

DUM-E squealed loudly and pushed the box over, upturning its contents on the floor.

"What the fuck was that, DUM-E?" Tony shouted. "Who knows what could've been in there?"

DUM-E lowered his claw making a dejected sound.

" _DUM-E wishes to convey that 'Daddy was taking too long to look inside the box and wanted to help.'_ "

Tony sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Just…don't do it again, okay?" DUM-E perked up and started to move the couple of hoodies that fell out of the box away from each other.

Tony pushed aside the useless AI and picked up a dark red MIT hoodie. He hadn't seen this in _years_. Honestly, he thought that it got thrown out when he moved from the Family Manor to Malibu. It was the first MIT swag he bought, and he wore it all the time while he was there. The other hoodie was a black one that said 'Yes, I'm always right' with a small ninety degree angle below it that Rhodey got him for his sixteenth birthday. Where did Agent even find these?

Under that, still partially in the box were some old blueprints for automated pets he was designing as a teenager before he only designed weapons. He had an idea to create service animal AIs for people who couldn't have an actual dog for a number of reasons, whether it be upkeep of an actual animal or allergies. Tony put them aside to look into later.

The last thing was wrapped in bubble wrap to protect it, which Tony pulled away and gasped.

In his hand he held a small eight-inch high silver robot with a short antenna. It's power indicator light and eyes were dark even though the power switch was on. "Buddy…"

DUM-E leaned his camera right next to the smaller robot.

Tony cleared his throat and continued to stare at Buddy. "DUM-E, JARVIS, this is Buddy. He was my…friend." DUM-E readjusted his camera and JARVIS remained silent.

Tony flicked the power switch a couple times, frowning when nothing happened. He had to fix his friend. Tony pulled a screwdriver from his pocket and worked off the back plate of the robot and pulled out the circuit board. "Ah, fuck, it's fried." He scowled. "JARVIS, scan and copy."

Blue light ran over the dead circuit board and the details of the board popped up on a holo screen next to Tony, who was still on the floor. He grabbed the soldering gun and DUM-E fetched new circuit board parts, as well as a face mask. Tony also plugged Buddy into a charger since his battery was dead.

"Thanks," Tony said, accepting the face mask. He soldered the board back into working order and uploaded the information from the chip into the computer. He waved a keyboard into existence and fixed the small errors in coding, altering the voice modulation, as well.

Once that was done, he downloaded the new coding back into the circuit board and replaced it in Buddy, who was done charging, so Tony could replace the back plate and screw it closed.

He held his breath as his flipped the power switch, DUM-E hovering to the side of him.

Buddy's antenna and eyes flickered on and he sighed in relief. He could still fix one of his oldest friends.

Tony held up Buddy, gazing into his tiny blue eyes and touched the tiny chest plate. The eyes scanned his face and flashed once, indicating acceptance.

"You're my best friend, Tony," it warbled, the voice only slightly smoother with the improvements, but it was still recognizable and it brought him back to when he first heard the words. "And I will never leave you." The loneliness he felt on a near constant basis, that he still felt sometimes when he was alone in his workshop. A tear slid down Tony's cheek. This was his second friend, and he left him to rust in a box.

DUM-E clicked his claw and rested it on his shoulder. " _Sir,_ _please forgive me if I overstep my bounds, but DUM-E and I think of you as a friend, as well, and as long as we can help it, we won't leave you._ "

Tony wrapped the arm holding Buddy around DUM-E and held him close. He wiped the tears with his other hand. "I know, Jay, but you know my track record is far from perfect." First Sophie moved away, then he lost Buddy when he moved to MIT, and the original Jarvis died with his parents right before Rhodey went into the Air Force, leaving Tony alone. It was only a matter of time before Happy and Pepper realized what a bad idea it was to stay around him.

" _All the same, sir, we still love you._ "

Tony smiled at his goofy helper AI and one of JARVIS' many sensors on the wall. "I…I love you both, too, and I'll protect you as long as I can, I promise."

" _We wouldn't expect anything less than that from you, sir_." DUM-E made a noise in agreement.

Tony took a deep breath and stood up from the floor. He placed Buddy on a high shelf, making sure that he could be seen, but not run into by DUM-E or flying Iron Man parts. He splashed water on his face, washing off the tears and taking a moment to recompose himself.

He turned towards DUM-E who was just staring at him from his place in the middle of the garage. "You going to clean up this mess on the floor or just sit there pretending to be a coat rack, because that's what you're going to be at my next party if you don't get to work."

DUM-E chirped and started to push around the mess on the floor into something resembling a pile. Tony rolled his eyes at the attempt but smiled all the same.

He glanced back at his first hand-made friend. _You're my best friend, Tony_

In the past, a small child grips a screwdriver and smiles a real smile at his first original creation.

The smile is something to treasure because it doesn't last. No matter what he does, the smile that graces the child's face at that moment will never last.

" _And I will never leave you_."


End file.
